1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a system and method that accesses more than one IP address for a given domain name. More particularly, the present invention retrieves multiple IP addresses for a domain name from a networked repository and returns the list to the client where the user selects one of the addresses from the list.
2. Description of the Related Art
Domain name servers are responsible for resolving a domain name to an Internet Protocol (IP) address. When a user enters a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), such as “www.ibm.com”, a Domain Name System (DNS) Server is used to look up the IP address of the web site (in this case, the web site for the International Business Machines Corporation). Domain names are highly convenient as they are more “user friendly” than IP addresses that are relatively long, numeric addresses. Because people remember words and phrases far better than numeric addresses, domain names greatly aid the user in locating a particular web site. A client, such as a personal computer running “browser” software connects to a large computer network, such as the Internet. When the user enters a URL (that includes a domain name) into the web browser, a DNS server is used to look up the IP address of the URL and return the IP address so the IP address can be used to access the network resource (e.g., the IBM web site).
There are numerous DNS servers that provide domain name resolution on a large computer network such as the Internet. A particular client will often store a few DNS server addresses (e.g., a primary and a secondary DNS server). These DNS server address references determine which DNS servers a particular client will use to resolve requests for domain name resources. While DNS makes the task of locating network resources easier, the current system is faced with particular challenges.
One challenge facing the current DNS is that, by rule, a DNS server can only include one IP address for any given URL. This is a challenge because, while the DNS is generally a large distributed database, the IP addresses for a given URL maintained by one DNS server is not necessarily the same IP address that is maintained by another DNS server. There are many reasons why the IP addresses for a given URL differ from one DNS server to the next. Sometimes the IP addresses are purposefully changed based upon laws, language differences, and the like. Because the IP addresses might be different, providing services, such as customer help desk operations, is increasingly challenging. A help desk employee using one DNS server may access a different IP address (and thus different content) from a customer that is using a different DNS server.
Another challenge facing the current DNS is in the area of redirecting users to different web sites based upon the user's needs. For example, some businesses have various business units and/or business partners that each has their own network presence. However, if the user cannot remember the names (e.g., domain names) of the individual business unit/partner that he or she wishes to visit, the user often needs to visit the primary business network site first and look through a list of “links” to other business units/partners. This causes the primary site to receive traffic that could otherwise be directed away from the primary site. This challenge is exacerbated if the primary site is experiencing problems or is otherwise unavailable as the user will be unable to easily access the site of the business unit/partner.